OF FRUIT TREES, ll? 



and sent to table before that which is collected by 

 hand; and such as may be accidentally bruised 

 ought to be reserved for culinary purposes, because 

 it cannot be long kept in a sound state. When all 

 the fruit is collected, it should be conveyed to the 

 store room, laid gently, in small heaps, on dried 

 grass, and their tops be covered with short grass, 

 in order to sweat. Here it may remain for about a 

 fortnight, during which time, each apple, pear, &c. 

 must be occasionally wiped with a dry woollen cloth, 

 and those exposed on the surface should be placed 

 towards the middle of the heap. At the end of 

 this period, all watery ingredients that may have 

 been imbibed during a wet season, will be evapo- 

 rated; the heaps should then be uncovered, and 

 each article carefully wiped; separating those which 

 may be injured, or unfit for keeping. During this 

 process of sweating, the windows of the store room, 

 excepting in wet or foggy weather, ought to be 

 continually open, in order to discharge the moisture 

 perspiring from the fruit. The usual method of 

 storing pears, apples, &c. consists in laying them on 

 clean wheaten straw ; but in this case, it will be ne- 

 cessary to examine them frequently, and to remove 

 such as begin to decay; because the straw, by ab- 

 sorbing moisture, will become so tainted as to com- 

 municate an unpleasant flavour." The best mode 

 of preserving fruit, however, in the opinion of Mr. 

 Forsyth, is that of packing it in glazed earthen jars, 

 which ought to be kept in dry apartments. For 

 this purpose, apples and pears are to be wrapped 

 separately in soft papers, and laid at the bottom of 

 the vessel, on a thin stratum of well dried bran. 

 Alternate layers of bran and fruit are then to fol- 

 low, till the jar be filled ; when it should be gently 

 shaken, in order to settle its contents. Every va- 

 cancy must now be supplied with bran, covered 

 with paper, and the whole secured from air and 

 moisture, by a piece of bladder, over which the 

 cover of the vessel must be carefully fitted. 



